"For love is as strong as death" was the motto linking the events of the 2008 Salzburg Festival, and the festival"s first-ever production of Gounod"s Romeo el Juliette perfectly encapsulates that Biblical assertion: with the opera"s exquisite depiction of love"s mystery and its insistent focus on the two protagonists, unable to carry oh living without each other But while the love story is one of private moments, the context, of course, is the public one of feuding families. It is a decadent society that producer Bartlett Sher depicts, and he uses the wide open-air space of the Felsenreitschule to conjure up a street life marked by the threat of violence, letting the young blood? of Verona swagger in behind the orchestra, and perching Stephano on a handrail in the audience to sing his provocative song. And from the very outset, Sher contrasts this public life with the lovers" private world, with an ugly opening scene in the foreground and the ethereal appearance of Romeo and Juliette in the mysterious arcades behind. Opera In Five Acts Juliette - Nino Machaidze Romeo - Rolando Villazon Frere Laurent - Mikhail Petrenko Mercutio - Russell Braun Stephano - Cora Burggraaf Le Comte Capulet - Falk Struckmann Tybalt - Juan Francisco Gatell Gertrude - Susanne Resmark Брайан Лардж